We currently live in Germany. We have heard a lot about festivals when the farmers bring the cows down from the alps. 1) Does anyone have dates/towns for these? We would like to go to the Gimmelwald area if there are any around there. 2) To save some money, we would like to camp as well (same area). We are having a hard time finding actual camping sites. However, when I contacted the Gimmelwald tourist site, they said you could pretty much put your tent up wherever??? Has anyone tried this before/ where??Thanks!

I can't answer your first question; I've never seen dates posted as it all seems very weather-dependent. They try to leave the cows up high as long as they can. Sometimes they come down in early Sept, sometimes October. Hopefully someone else has a better answer!

As to your second question, no, you can't just put up a tent anywhere. Strange that the tourist site told you that. Most all of the land in the area is privately owned. Camping is only allowed in designated campsites. There is a nice one called Camping Jungfrau just outside of Lauterbrunnen. http://www.camping-jungfrau.ch/en/ueber_uns/default.asp. I believe this one is open year round

This is a quite large facility. There is a smaller one outside of Stechelberg, just a couple of miles down the road called Camping Rütti. http://www.campingruetti.ch/defaulte.htm. This one is only open May - September